Rezolve Ltd. is combining with a special-purpose acquisition company to go public in a merger that values the mobile commerce platform at about $2 billion, the companies said.
A software platform that can turn physical advertisements and products into shoppable merchandise, Rezolve is merging with the SPAC Armada Acquisition Corp. AACI 0.31% I, a blank-check firm focused on the financial-technology industry. The deal is set to be unveiled Friday.
London-based Rezolve says its platform offers businesses direct access to consumers, who point their phone at physical objects to generate actionable or shoppable items. The software can also improve a company’s marketing by using location-based technology and other targeted techniques, Rezolve says.
The company hopes its software will eventually be embedded in a number of businesses so everyone from retailers to sports teams can easily interact with customers, Rezolve founder and Chief Executive Dan Wagner said in an interview.
“The ambition is to be a standard in mobile engagement,” he said. “We’re simply saying, ‘Here is an infrastructure that anyone can put in their apps.’”
Mr. Wagner has previously launched several companies, including smartphone-payment firm Powa Technologies, which collapsed in 2016. The British tech entrepreneur said in some ways Rezolve picked up where Powa left off and that its existing revenue and business-focused strategy will make his latest venture successful.
Backed by investors including the U.K. government, Rezolve currently works mainly with companies in Asia such as the 7-Eleven convenience-store chain and Indian auto maker Tata Motors Ltd. It expects to post about $80 million in sales this year.
Rezolve joins a flood of technology startups that are using SPAC mergers to inject money into their businesses. Such deals have become common alternatives to traditional initial public offerings, in part because they let the company going public make business projections that aren’t allowed in IPOs.
A SPAC is a shell firm that raises money and trades publicly with the sole purpose of merging with a private company to take it public. After the private firm files detailed financial statements with regulators and the deal is approved, it replaces the SPAC in the stock market. A record of more than 250 blank-check mergers have been announced this year that together value companies at roughly $600 billion, according to Dealogic.
As part of the deal, Rezolve is raising a $40 million private investment in public equity, or PIPE, from two investors: Fintech entrepreneur and prolific SPAC creator Betsy Cohen and German billionaire Christian Angermayer, an existing investor in the company. Mr. Angermayer is a cryptocurrency and technology investor who backs commercial efforts to use hallucinogenic substances to treat depression and other ailments. He also is CEO of a separate SPAC.
Ms. Cohen’s family is heavily involved with the investment firm Cohen and Co., which is one of the Armada SPAC’s backers.
The PIPE money and the $150 million that the Armada SPAC raised in August will be used to expand the business, though SPAC investors can pull their money out before the deal goes through. Low share prices often provide an incentive for such withdrawals, which have become more common recently and made it harder for companies to complete mergers.
Write to Amrith Ramkumar at amrith.ramkumar@wsj.com
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Appeared in the December 18, 2021, print edition as ‘Shopper Software Maker to Go Public.’
